The Overwatch 2.72 update patch notes represent a big shift for the game. It brings a new hero with an interesting back story, some balance changes, and the start of the highly anticipated Role Queue system. It feels like the rebirth of Overwatch but what do the exact patch notes contain? Well, kind of a lot.
ALSO: Overwatch Role Queue might be the best thing to happen to the game in years
Overwatch 2.72 Update Patch Notes | Role Queue beta
The Role Queue system that makes players pick two Tanks, two Supports, and two Damage heroes is in the game but only in a beta state. Players can’t quite use the Role Queue system in Quick Play as it is only relegated to competitive play for now. It will roll into the game proper on September 1. For once, console players get to test something before it goes all the way live. You can learn more about Role Queue here.
Overwatch 2.72 Update Patch Notes | Sigma
Sigma is finally here for all platforms and can be played in every mode (even competitive in this short beta season). This new Talon Tank has a unique spread of abilities that let him soak up projectiles, toss a huge bolder, send out a big barrier, and more. His ultimate even lets him send his opponents flying in the air before slamming them back down to the ground. He’s got a unique build despite having a couple familiar abilities.
Overwatch 2.72 Update Patch Notes | Balance changes
The game has been changed to reflect the new Role Queue system. For starters, ultimate cost has increased by 12% because they “are coming up too often” according to Blizzard. Slowing effects, like Mei’s primary fire, have also been changed as characters who can slow themselves like Reinhardt or Widowmaker won’t begin slowing down until the threshold of the enemy slowing effect eclipses their own. It’s a little confusing but basically these heroes won’t slow down from an enemy immediately if they are slowing themselves down. Zarya and Symmetra also got a small buff as their laser weapons will now do more damage to fast tracking enemies.
There are some quick changes before the big ones. Ashe now reloads faster (.25 seconds per shell instead of .3), Doomfist’s melee no longer interrupts his reload, Hanzo only has five Storm Arrows (down from six), Orisa’s Barrier cooldown has increased to nine seconds (up from eight), Tracer’s Pulse Bomb now does 350 damage again (up from 300), Reinhardt now has a 30% resistance to pushback effects (like Lúcio’s boop) to make him more sturdy, and the ultimate cost for D.Va’s mech call has decreased by 12% to offset the overall ultimate cost change.
The other heroes got more significant changes. Sombra’s Hack now only hacks enemies for five seconds (down from six) and her ultimate now takes .35 seconds to come out instead of .2. This was done to make her feel less oppressive.
Symmetra’s teleporter now lasts forever until it is destroyed, which players can now manually do. The cooldown now starts when it is destroyed and the range of the teleporters has been increased to 30 meters. If it goes over 40, like if it is on a moving platform, it will be destroyed. This was done to be less restrictive.
Wrecking Ball’s mines now spread out more and now take .25 seconds to come out instead of a full second. This will let him cover more ground and have a more effective ultimate.
Brigitte got the biggest changes. Her healing passive that dealt healing as she attacked has been increased to 130 (up from 100) but her self-healing from it has been halved. Players now have three Repair Packs but the healing has been dropped to 120 (from 150). It heals over two seconds now and not instantly. If the same person gets a few of them, it will take even longer to fully heal. Her Whip Shot attack now goes faster by 20% and it retracts even faster too (from .6 seconds to .3 seconds). This means she will be able to use it more quickly and reliably.
Her barrier has taken a hit though. It now only has 200 health, which is significantly down from 500. Her stun has also been reduced to .75 seconds from .9 seconds which is a buff. And to top it all off, her ultimate not costs 10% more on top of the 12% of the whole game. Blizzard said these changes were to make her more a bigger primary healer but at the cost of “weakening her survivability.” This was done because she can’t stack with other healers now, which too often made teams unstoppable death balls in the past.
Overwatch 2.72 Update Patch Notes | General updates
While not as huge, players can now endorse each other in Mystery Heroes No Limits, Deathmatch, Total Mayhem, Low Grav, all PvE Event game modes like Uprising, Retribution, Storm Rising, and more. Previously, you could only upvote people in Quick Play and Competitive. Speaking of Mystery Heroes, heroes now reset between rounds on Control maps (Busan, Lijiang Tower, etc.)
The Workshop also saw new events like Player Dealt Healing, Player Received Healing, Player Joined Match, and Player Left Match. It got new actions like Start Transforming Throttle and Stop Transforming Throttle along with new values like Healer, Healee, Event Healing, and Host Player. Blizzard said the healing was highly requested.
Full Overwatch 2.72 Update Patch Notes
Here are those full Overwatch 2.72 update patch notes:
New Feature: Role Queue
Role Queue is an update to Overwatch’s matchmaking and queuing system that gives players the power to choose which role they play in games. In Competitive Play, players choose their role before finding a game. The matchmaking system will create a team that is comprised of two tanks, two supports, and two damage heroes. Upon entering the match, players select heroes to play within their chosen roles. At the end of a match, competitive players will return to the main menu and select their role before queuing into their next game. For more information about Role Queue, read the detailedblog post.
New Hero: Sigma (Tank)
Sigma is an eccentric astrophysicist and volatile tank who gained the power to control gravity in an orbital experiment gone wrong. Manipulated by Talon and deployed as a living weapon, Sigma’s presence on the battlefield cannot be ignored. Sigma launches two Hyperspheres (gravitic charges), which bounce off walls and implode after a short duration, damaging enemies within a sizable radius. Using Experimental Barrier he propels a floating barrier to a location of his choosing and he can dismiss the barrier at any time. With Kinetic Grasp Sigma freezes incoming projectiles in midair, converting them into shields. Sigma uses Accretion to gather a mass of debris, then flings it at an enemy, knocking them down. Unleashing his full powers with Gravitic Flux, Sigma takes flight, lifts enemies in a targeted area, and launches them into the sky before slamming them back down.
GENERAL UPDATES
Endorsements
- Players can now endorse each other in the following game modes:
- Mystery Heroes
- No Limits
- Deathmatch
- Total Mayhem
- Low Grav
- All PvE Event game modes (Uprising, Retribution, Storm Rising)
Game Modes
- Mystery Heroes – On Control maps, heroes are now reset between rounds.
Workshop
New Events
- Player Dealt Healing
- Player Received Healing
- Player Joined Match
- Player Left Match
New Actions
- Start Transforming Throttle
- Stop Transforming Throttle
New Values
- Healer
- Healee
- Event Healing
- Host Player
Developer Comment: A commonly requested feature for the Workshop is the ability to track healing, so we’ve added two new event types and three new values to make this possible. We’ve also added events to make it easier to detect players joining and leaving matches. To support the creation of administrator-style privileges for custom games, the owner of the game can now be detected using Host Player. Finally, we’ve added the ability to scale, invert, and rotate a player’s input throttle to make controlling characters in third person easier.
HERO UPDATES
General
- Global ultimate cost increased 12%.
Developer Comment: Considering how high impact they are, ultimates are coming up too often. We are reducing how quickly they charge so fewer fights will be determined by ultimate usage.
- Slowing Effects: Instead of stacking together, friendly and hostile slowing effects are now separate, and movement speed will be determined by whichever is slower.
Developer Comment: This change will mostly impact heroes who slow themselves, such as when Widowmaker scopes or Reinhardt puts up his barrier. In these cases, hostile slowing effects, such as Symmetra’s turrets or Mei’s freezing will not hinder these heroes unless they stop slowing themselves or the hostile effect’s slow value surpasses their own.
- Fixed a bug in which full damage was not dealt by abilities that rapidly gain/lose targets, such as fast-tracking with Zarya’s and Symmetra’s primary fire beams.
Developer Comment: This is a fairly significant bug fix that can cause beam weapons to do much more damage in certain situations. In particular, Zarya and Symmetra will sometimes feel much more powerful as a result of this bug fix. We’ll be keeping a close eye on these heroes to make sure they don’t end up too strong.
Ashe
- Reload time per round decreased from 0.3 to 0.25 seconds.
Developer Comment: Ashe’s full reload time felt overly restrictive. However, a long reload time is intended to balance out the power of her gun, so we want to be careful not to eliminate that completely.
Brigitte
Inspire (Passive)
- Healing amount increased from 100 to 130
- Self-healing from Inspire is now halved
Repair Pack
- Now has 3 charges
- Healing amount changed from 150 to 120
- Now heals over 2 seconds instead of instantly
- If you throw multiple packs at the same person, the current duration will be extended by 2 seconds
Whip Shot
- Out-going velocity increased from 60 to 80
- Retracting time reduced from 0.6 seconds to 0.3
Barrier Shield
- Barrier health reduced from 500 to 200
Shield Bash
- Stun duration reduced from 0.9 seconds to 0.75
Rally
- Ultimate cost increased 10%
Developer Comment: The goal of these changes is to make Brigitte more of a primary healer for your team, at the cost of weakening her survivability. Since Brigitte will now be only one of two support heroes for your team, it is important that she can provide enough healing to be valuable in that role.
D.Va
Call Mech
- Pilot ultimate cost reduced by 12%
Developer Comment: This change is just meant to counteract the global increase in ultimate cost. The time it takes to generate a D.Va’s ultimate when out of her mech should remain the same as it was before this update.
Doomfist
Melee
- Quick melee no longer pauses ammo reload.
Developer Comment: This is a quality of life change which allows Doomfist to more freely use Quick Melee as part of his combos, without feeling punished for it.
Hanzo
Storm Arrows
- Storm Arrows ammo reduced from 6 to 5
Developer Comment: The overall damage output of Storm Arrows was too high so we’re reducing the maximum number of shots.
Orisa
Protective Barrier
- Cooldown increased from 8 seconds to 9
Developer Comment: A common point of feedback for playing against Orisa was that it doesn’t feel useful to shoot the barrier as it comes back so quickly. Increasing the cooldown of Protective Barrier will make destroying it more rewarding.
Reinhardt
New Passive: “Steadfast”
- Reduces knock back effects by 30%
Developer Comment: As a frontline, melee-range tank Reinhardt was more adversely affected by knock back abilities than most heroes. To reduce some of this frustration and enable Reinhardt to more easily fulfill his role, he is now more resistant to being knocked back.
Sombra
Hack
- Duration on enemy players reduced from 6 to 5 seconds
EMP
- Activation time increased from 0.2 to 0.35 seconds
Developer Comment: Hack is a potent disabling ability with a long duration. Reducing the duration slightly will make it feel less oppressive as the hacked player without greatly reducing its effectiveness. The increased activation time on EMP allows for more time to react and opens up more counterplay opportunities for the opposing team.
Symmetra
Teleporter
- Now lasts an infinite duration until destroyed
- Players can destroy their Teleporter with the ability 2 input
- Cooldown now starts when Teleporter is destroyed
- Maximum range increased from 25 to 30 meters
- Teleporter is destroyed if the entrance is more than 40 meters from the exit
Developer Comment: Symmetra’s Teleporter is an interesting tool but often felt too restricting to use. Making the Teleporter last indefinitely opens up new opportunities for how Symmetra is used in various maps and group compositions.
Tracer
Pulse Bomb
- Damage increased from 300 to 350
Developer Comment: Pulse Bomb was reduced in power some time ago to make sure it was not overly punishing to Tanks, which are much easier to stick the bomb to. While this is still a goal, we’re restoring some of this lost power to help deal with other hefty targets such as Bastion, or enemies with bonus armor from Brigitte.
Wrecking Ball
Minefield
- Increased projectile speed from 10 to 12, causing the mines to spread out more
- Reduced the activation time from 0.25 to 0.1 seconds
Developer Comment: Wrecking Ball has a very active playstyle, but it often felt difficult to make good use out of his ultimate. This change allows him to spread out his Minefield further if he wants (especially from high in the air), while still allowing for a tighter cluster if he activates it near the ground.
BUG FIXES
General
- Fixed a bug that prevented subtitles from displaying when spectating while waiting to respawn
- Fixed a bug that caused charging heroes (Reinhardt, Doomfist, Brigitte) to inconsistently knock each other down when colliding
- Fixed a bug so that some abilities (Hanzo’s Dragon Strike and Roadhog’s Chain Hook) will appear smoother when time is slowed down (end of round or custom game)
- Fixed a bug that caused the Presets UI in Custom Game to be displayed in the wrong order
- Fixed a bug so that placement previews (Reaper’s Shadow Step, Mei’s Ice Wall) should now be much smoother
- Fixed a bug so that placement previews will now hold their position after clicking, until they’ve been confirmed by the server
- Fixed a bug where orientation toggles for placement previews could flicker at higher latencies (Mei’s Ice Wall, Baptiste’s Amplification Matrix, Symmetra’s Photon Barrier)
Maps
Route 66
- Fixed a bug that allowed attackers to leave the spawn room before the round starts
Heroes
Ashe
- Fixed a bug that caused her gun to clip into the camera slightly when jumping while shooting down sights
Doomfist
- Fixed an issue that enables Doomfist to get through doorways while using Rocket Punch and clipping the corner
- Fixed a bug that prevented Rocket Punch from consistently destroying Sombra’s Translocator and not being stopped by it, similar to Symmetra’s turrets
- Fixed an issue so that targets hit by Rocket Punch will now go directly backwards, instead of maintaining any lateral momentum they had
- Fixed an issue so that targets that are immune to stun but not immune to knockback (Zarya’s Particle Barrier, Zenyatta during Transcendence) are no longer able to affect knockback trajectory
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to move more slowly for the duration of Meteor Strike when using it while crouched
- Fixed a bug that caused Doomfist to move backwards slightly slower during Meteor Strike
D.Va
- Fixed a bug that prevented Defense Matrix from pointing down when D.Va was aiming downward while moving
Lúcio
- Fixed an issue that caused false positives with Lúcio’s animation landing prediction when wall riding
Orisa
- Fixed a bug that caused some VFX to stop playing upon successive viewings of Orisa’s “Oh!” highlight intro in Hero Gallery
Reinhardt
- Fixed a bug that caused charge knockback to be applied multiple times
Wrecking Ball
- Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to get stuck in his slam animation if he landed on very flat, slippery surfaces
- Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to be temporarily stuck when using Piledriver on slippery surfaces
- Fixed a bug that caused Wrecking Ball to gain an incorrect amount of shields when using Adaptive Shield
Zarya
- Fixed a bug that caused Zarya’s weapon and arm to animate oddly during her emotes when viewed in third person
Zenyatta
- Fixed a bug that caused a delay in Zenyatta’s first person quick melee animation when interrupting his primary fire
